Lose Yourself
by Catching Fireflies
Summary: "Look. If you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted. One moment. Would you capture it, or just let it slip?" The arena of hundreds of tributes and twenty-four 'tribute representatives'. The 200th Hunger Games. The arena that covers almost all of Panem. The arena of lost opportunities and forgotten honor. The arena where you will lose yourself. CLOSED
1. Introduction

**A/N: Hey! I know, anyone who submitted to Burning Blood (my other SYOT) is probably really pissed that I'm starting a new one. Don't worry, I'm not quitting on that one, especially since it's closed now!**

**And don't worry, there's only 24 spots, not the grand total of (wait for it...) 288 tributes. Which is 24 tributes per district, by the way. This is a version where there was never a rebellion, and Katniss Everdeen was just a girl from District 12, and Prim was never reaped, and Peeta died in the 74th Hunger Games. So in other words, the Games continued.**

**Oh, by the way, the title of this story and the song quote in the summary are from the song Lose Yourself by Eminem. I couldn't help it... I'm a huge Eminem fan. Plus that little part of the song inspired this story. :D**

**_Lose Yourself_**

Kenzie Hilstead, Head Gamemaker, was restless that night. It was only her first year as a Gamemaker, but President Lockwood insisted that she had true talent and promoted her right away. And the 200th annual Hunger Games were only eight months away. It seemed like a long time, but it wasn't, considering the arena plans. Actually, scratch that. She had no arena plans at all yet. Every time she thought of something, President Lockwood turned it down. "You can do better than that," Lockwood would insist. He would stroke his short blond beard for a little, looking at her plans, and shake his head. "This is the 200th Games, _and_ a Quarter Quell! Make it something so special, so mind-blowing, that all of Panem will be in shock."

But nothing that Kenzie thought up was good enough for him.

Nevertheless, despite her worries, she somehow managed to fall asleep. And hours later, when she woke up from a vivid dream, she had the perfect idea. An idea that would make President Lockwood himself astonished. An arena where the tributes would lose themselves.

* * *

Kenzie was wearing her very best blue dress, which was covered in real sapphires that shimmered under the electric lights. It brought out her eyes. Her long black hair was braided down her back. And most importantly, she was holding a binder full of her plans and sketches for the arena. She was ready to greet President Lockwood to her apartment. Of course, she'd had to clean it up, since she was a total slob most of the time. But not with her Gamemaking work. Never.

Then the doorbell rang, and she stepped forward quickly, opening the door for the President of Panem. He was her age, in his thirties, with blond hair, and he wore a fancy suit. She forced a smile to her face, trying not to look as petrified as she felt. "Hello," she said, gesturing to her living room. "Come in, come in." They sat down at opposite ends of her dining room table, and Kenzie set down her binder. "Here," she said proudly. "This is the best I've ever thought up. You can't turn down _this_ one."

President Lockwood smiled, but he didn't look like her believed her. He opened the binder. Of course, Kenzie had saved the best for last, and first were her arena sketches and plans for muttation breeding. His eyes swept slowly over a sketch of a ring of enormous trees around the arena, and a force field right after them, nodding approvingly. "Good, good," he said, smiling. He flipped through the muttation plans -some especially horrible beasts that were the results of two different muttations of the same genus mating. "Also very well done. I agree, this is your best... but what about the arena itself?"

All that Kenzie had to do was point to the final piece of paper, handwritten and scrawled sloppily onto a piece of paper torn from a notebook.

Lockwood's eyes traced the paper, and then they slowly widened. "'The arena will cover all of the territory of Panem, excepting the districts and the Capitol,'" he reads aloud from the paper, looking shocked. Kenzie was taking it all in with a hopeful smile. "'The citizens of the districts will be temporarily transferred to the Capitol, because contact between districts and the Capitol would cut through the arena if everyone was in the districts. I know perfectly well that there's space for that if Capitol citizens let District families live in their homes.'" He chuckled. "True, true, but what the hell if the Capitol citizens don't like it?"

"I know, exactly," Kenzie said breathlessly. "Do you like it? The idea, I mean."

After a few seconds of thought, in which Kenzie could barely stand, President Lockwood nodded. "It's literally the best idea I've ever seen in my life, Ms. Hilstead," he said with a grin. "But there's one flaw." Kenzie's heart sank. "There's only twenty-four tributes. And your arena will cover almost all of Panem." Kenzie inwardly groaned. How had she not thought of this before?

"But," Lockwood continued. "But, I've been noticing something about the past Quarter Quells." Kenzie was on the edge of her seat now, waiting. "They're getting boring. I mean, twenty-four tributes is significant. As in the second Quarter Quell, forty-eight tributes was almost overwhelming for the districts." He grinned. "But say that we... cheated. Made our own Quarter Quell and changed it to even more tributes and an arena that covers all of Panem but the districts and the Capitol."

Kenzie smiled back, relieved and almost giddy with happiness. "How many tributes, do you think?" she asked.

"Oh, I'd say... hmm, how does twenty-four from each district sound to you?" he said. Kenzie nodded and smiled even bigger. "I'll take that as a yes."

"So..." Kenzie said, thinking. "So the interviews and all that stuff wouldn't be really long, how about we have two tributes represent their district's tributes, so it's a little like normal. One boy, and one girl."

President Lockwood started laughing, and nodded. "This is going to be literally the best Games we'll ever see," he declared with a grin, and there was a maniac glint in Kenzie's eyes as she laughed with him.

* * *

**Okay, guys, I've got a few rules for you.**

**1.) Please submit through PM only. I'm not accepting tributes that are reviewed in.**

**2.) In case you just skipped my author's note, there's only twenty-four spots for submission, like usual. Your tributes will be the district representatives.**

**3.) I'm NOT doing first-come first-serve this time, so please don't send in a really boring form.**

**4.) The tribute list will be on my profile.**

* * *

Name (first and last):

Gender:

District (top 2 in order):

Age:

Physical appearance (please include eye color, hair color, skin color, and other important things...):

Family and background:

Reaping outfit:

Interview outfit:

Any suggestions for this district's opening ceremonies costumes:

Interview angle:

Interview quote:

Personality:

Weapons or other skills used for individual sessions with the Gamemakers:

Friends or love interests back in the district:

Approximate weight in pounds:

Approximate height in feet and inches:

Bloodbath and Games strategies:

Weaknesses (optional, and if you do, only put two major ones):

District token (optional):

Anything else I missed:

**Okay, that's it for now! Hope you enjoy!**


	2. District One

**Hey, guys! I'm not going to do one of those 'pre-reaping' chapters, because those are boring for me to write, so, yeah. Here's the District One reaping. Both tributes were submitted by BecauseofKillianJones. Thanks double! ;) And thanks to everyone who submitted, favorited, followed, or reviewed. :)**

**And yes, I'm attempting to write this story in third person, past tense. Bear with me here if I make some mistakes. If you've read some of my other stories, you'll know that I'm a first person, present tense kind of writer. (Except for my other story, This Is Prim.) So let me know if there's any major errors. Hopefully these will be better reapings than in Burning Blood. Sorry that it's so short.**

**I'm overwhelmed with the response to this SYOT (it took FOREVER to get this many tributes for my other one). But there's still some open spots. All girl spots are taken, but the D3, D5, D10, and D11 guys are open, so feel free to submit!**

_**District One**_

The ornately decorated clock in Killian's bedroom read 6:02 in the morning -early, since District One's citizens usually were in the habit of sleeping late like in the Capitol-, but Bianca was wide awake. She had no idea how early morning sickness and all of that was supposed to start. Either way, she felt so damn _sick_ that she either wanted to run for the bathroom and tell Kil that she had the flu for what seemed like the thousandth time. Her stomach churned, and after a few seconds of debating, she leaped out of bed and ran into the fancy bathroom that connected to the bedroom.

As soon as she slammed the door shut, hopefully not waking up Kil's parents in the process, she leaned over the sink and retched over and over, shaking and sweaty. _Oh, Kil,_ she thought. _I wonder what you'd say if you knew that I was pregnant with your child. _But she couldn't let anyone know. Not her parents, who were still getting over the death of her brother, even though it was in the Games of three years ago. They'd think that Bianca would die too if she went into the Games while pregnant. They hoped so much to have another victor, like her father. They'd been forcing Bianca to train since she was little, and of course, they'd made Chris train, too.

But there wasn't training for what to do when you're doing great, good enough to hope for victory, when your district partner literally stabs you in the back. Chris could have used training for that.

And if she told anyone, anyone at all, she wouldn't have been able to train anymore. She couldn't even tell Kil. Besides, since it was technically reaping day, however early it was, she wouldn't be allowed to volunteer today if the trainers knew that she was pregnant. Well, maybe it would get her sponsors. That was Katniss Everdeen's strategy, right? And besides, Bianca was from District One, after all. Everyone loved District One.

She washed the vomit down the sink, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Leaning against the wall, she tried to compose herself. If Kil or anyone else knew that she was pregnant, then her whole future would be awful. So she was going to volunteer today. She had to. For Kil. For her parents. For her trainers. For her district. And for her unborn child.

There was a knock on the bathroom door, and Bianca, panicked, washed the last traces of vomit out of the sink. "Can I come in?" Kil asked in his usual arrogant manner. Bianca sighed in relief, glad that it wasn't Kil's parents, and unlocked the door.

Kil came in with that familiar grin that made Bianca smile back, despite all of her confused feelings. His black hair was messy as usual -a little messier, since he'd just rolled out of bed. His eyes looked like the blue ocean in pictures of District Four that Bianca had seen in her school textbooks about industry. "Hey, Bianca," he said, giving her a hug. "You look beautiful," he adds cockily.

Bianca had to laugh then. "It's six a.m. in the morning, Kil," she said with a grin that was half-real, half-false. Inside, she was miserable, but Kil could always make her smile.

"You still look beautiful," he reassured. Bianca, with her face buried into Kil's shoulder, felt safe for the first time since she'd found out that she was pregnant. "Well, since you're up, we might as well..." He gestured back at the bedroom.

Bianca giggled, but she shook her head. "No. It's reaping day," she said. Something like dread stirred in her. She wanted to volunteer, sure, and she was well trained for this, but she secretly hated the Capitol. "Let's just go back to sleep."

"Why are you up, anyway?" Kil asked, frowning a little. "Do you feel okay? I know you had the flu for a few weeks."

The flu. Another one of her excuses. "I'm fine, just had to go to the bathroom," she lied, and they went back into the bedroom, falling asleep quickly, trying to forget the reaping.

* * *

In the morning, Bianca tried to wake up before Kil. Not because she felt sick; she needed to go to her house and get her reaping outfit. But Kil was awake before her. "Hey, no need to go to your place," he said with a grin, pointing to an outfit laid out. "I got some clothes for you."

She smiled, happy tears springing to her eyes when she saw the dress and shoes. "Thanks," she said with a smile, going into the bathroom to change. When she came out, she was dressed in a beautiful blue dress -short, with a v-neck- and greek-style sandals. It looked great with her tanned skin, curly brown hair, and deep brown eyes. "Thank you so much, Kil," she said, hugging him.

His hands clasped a necklace behind her neck. She looked down, seeing the heart-shaped pendant. "When you're in the Games, this can be your district token," he said. "All right?"

"All right," she answered, unable to help smiling back.

* * *

In the Training Academy of District One, Kai hacked at a dummy with his sword. Some pre-reaping practice couldn't hurt. Once the dummy was in pieces, he laid down his sword. His girlfriend, Milah, clapped, grinning. Her straight black hair was in a loose braid over her shoulder, and Kai couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked. She was already in her reaping dress; gray, to match her eyes.

"Thank you, thank you," Kai said, giving Milah a hug. The rush that he always got from training, from tearing up dummies with his sword, was fading. "I've got to get back to my house. You know. Change into my reaping outfit. Hear my parents gush about how wonderful it is to have a son like me. Go to the reaping. Volunteer. Hear my family rant about how noble I am to volunteer and bring even more honor to District One."

Milah laughed. "I've got to go back home too, and meet my family," she said, giving him a goodbye hug and a kiss on the cheek that made his whole face feel hot. "Bye. I'll see you at the reaping." Kai nodded. And even as she became nothing but a person in the sea of people on the streets of District One, Kai stared after her, then left. Only, he took a different way. He was headed to his house.

When he got there, his family was waiting in the fancy living room, waiting on the couch, the picture-perfect portrait of District One life. His sister, Lilac, was in a pretty blue dress, with her thick, wavy blond hair braided back. His mother's black, curly hair -which he'd inherited, but kept short to hide the curls- was braided in the same style. His mother and father were in their best clothes, even though they obviously weren't part of the festivities.

"Hey," said Kai. "I'm going to put on my reaping clothes, all right? Then we can go." His father nodded, and Kai took the stairs two at a time up to his bedroom. After a long look at the many clothes in his large closet, he peeled off his sweaty training clothes and changed into a black v-neck shirt, gray jeans that were once blue, but had faded to gray, and a pair of boots. After a second admiring his reflection -wouldn't the Capitol love his muscles, that tanned skin, the generous height, the seductive blue eyes?- he ran back downstairs.

"Let's go," said Lilac, grinning. She planned to volunteer in a couple years, too, so this was important to her, to see her brother volunteering.

Once they got to the square -which was already packed- Kai went with the other eighteen-year-olds. He turned to see Milah, in the seventeen-year-olds' section, grinning at him. He smiled back and gave her a thumbs up. Then, after waiting through the _ever_-boring Treaty of Treason, he heard the chaperone call, "Time to see who our young lady is!"

She tottered in her high heels over to the girls' reaping ball and plucked out a slip after a few seconds. After clearing her throat, she read out, "Velvet Millson!"

"I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!" yelled a girl near him, knocking down the other would-be volunteers around her and running up to the stage. She stood next to the chaperone. Damn, she was pretty... but nowhere as beautiful as Milah.

"Your name?" asked the chaperone, undaunted, completely used to this.

"Bianca Maverick," the girl answered breathlessly, grinning out across the sea of faces. Good, not some wimp or slut for his district partner.

"Congratulations!" the chaperone trilled. All of District One applauded, even Kai, who was trying to prepare himself to run up to the stage and look strong and perfect and Career-like. Perfect to represent District One. "And now, for our male tribute!" She drew a name. "Silver Anderson-"

"I volunteer as tribute!" bellowed Kai, drowning out the calls of the boys are him as he pushed through the crowd, striding up to the stage. He took the steps two at a time, going right up to the microphone. "My name is Kai Gladius, and I plan to come back here as the victor of the 200th Hunger Games!" He winked, and a lot of the girls in the crowd squealed or looked faint.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" screeched the Capitol woman. She bared her mutated, surgically enhanced teeth in a smile. "Let's have a round of applause!"

Everyone in District One was clapping for him. Kai loved that feeling... but he loved seeing Milah clap the most.


End file.
